Albion, We Love Thee

We spent four days last week having a family reunion with Michael's family- his siblings, his parents and all the grandkids. We were missing two families, but still there were 33 of us!

The reunion has to be in one of the coolest places ever. Albion, Idaho.

Never heard of it? Check it out: We stayed at a newly renovated 100 year old college dormitory. A couple recently purchased the entire abandoned campus and this is the first building they've worked on and it's BEAUTIFUL!!

We had a ton of fun:
1. A personal tour of all of the buildings, including the almost finished haunted house that opens soon. Isn't that perfect? One of the buildings (these are huge buildings 8,000 s.f. to 65,000 s.f.) has a full library plus an enormous auditorium complete with balcony and 3 story stage. All of these other buildings have been housing pigeons and falling apart while also being looted and vandalized for the last 50 years. But the potential!! I felt the energy of the possibilities and nearly offered to be an investor (Michael reminded me that we need money in order to invest). Lucky Mortensens who own it. I think. It will take a LOT of work to pull those buildings back to life. The Mortensens are my age and have 5 kids. They own a couple of other businesses as well, so they are BUSY.

2. We played waterballoon volleyball, had a jumphouse/waterslide for the kids, rode banana bikes, went swimming and played in the 8 man hot tub. We kinda pushed the limits on that one.

3. We had a talent show that rivals "America's Got Talent". My favorite was the "Sumo Brothers" (exercise balls under their shirts) and "Lehi's Family Meets Dr. Suess"(an awesome rendition told in prose). All the girls did a cute dance with their matching leos and scarves, but they were quite indignant that Josh wanted to join at the last minute... notice he found a way to be "in costume".















4. There is an emu that lives on the grounds and is very curious about people. My nephew got him chasing a ball and my brother in law, a bishop, draped a coat over it's back while we hooted at it's crazy running and jumping trying to get it off.

The emu provided much entertainment. I think my kids are ready for a new pet....


The dorm we were in had $800,000 worth of renovations and much of the original architecture had been restored-- raw brick walls on the inside of the perimeter, refinished wood floors, etc. plus there were added, modernized touches. Someone commented that it was like staying at the Olive Garden restaurant.

Speaking of restaurants, we each brought up a meal and there was some mighty fine cooking.

My father in law made ribs that would knock your socks off. And the fresh peach pie..... I'm day dreaming again, aren't I?




Isn't that front door to die for?


This is a shot of the second floor which is all dorm rooms. There are 15 bedrooms in all plus a huge media/game room that takes up the entire 3rd floor. We had plenty of space to spread out.

Check out the website: www.albioncampusgrove.com


All in all, this was definitely one of the nicest accommodations we have ever had for a family reunion. Can you tell we are a little crazy about it?

Absolutely. We already have it booked for Thanksgiving.